Free Republic

Subtitle: In the face of a new administration, activists and regular people alike embrace tools for keeping their browsing habits and communications private. There's something about a Donald Trump administration in charge of the US National Security Agency that has folks taking government surveillance very seriously. Encrypted email provider ProtonMail and encrypted chat service Signal saw a spike in new users after the election. What's more, privacy advocates say they're hearing from more people who are interested in covering up their tracks online. Eva Galperin, a global policy analyst at the privacy-oriented Electronic Frontier Foundation, said she's received more requests...

Donald Trump and his doctor claim he’s 6-foot-3, but his New York driver’s license says he’s actually an inch shorter. A copy of Trump’s license, obtained by POLITICO through an open-records request, lists the president-elect at 6-foot-2.

Chrissy Teigen is responding to President-Elect Donald Trump‘s claim that lots of A-Listers are trying to get tickets to the upcoming inauguration, but can’t. Instead of A-List celebs, Trump apparently wants “the people.” Last night, she Tweeted at him that A-Listers are, in fact people, and .she called him out for wanting their approval. Follow christine teigen ✔ @chrissyteigen Hi - we are people. You are our president too. I don't want you to be, but u are. Also we ALL know you are dying without the approval, dear https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/812115501791006720 … 8:46 PM - 22 Dec 2016 6,702 6,702 Retweets...

Hillary Clinton spent much of last summer arguing that Ronald Reagan would never vote for Donald Trump. At the Democratic National Convention, a series of speakers — including Barack Obama — argued that the patron saint of the conservative movement would recoil at Trump’s authoritarian ethos. At a September press conference, the Democratic nominee suggested that the Gipper would be incensed to see the Republican nominee praise Vladimir Putin while disparaging the American president. One of her super-PACs’ final campaign ads cast Reagan’s ghost as a Clinton surrogate. The point of all this nostalgia for the man who killed off...

Why was Ivanka Trump flying on JetBlue? That is a question on everyone’s mind today, a day after the daughter of President-elect Donald Trump was involved in an incident aboard a flight on the low-cost airline from JFK International Airport in New York City. A fellow passenger, whom some media sites identified as Dan Goldstein of Brooklyn, N.Y., was accused of harassing her by saying “Your father is ruining the country.” Goldstein and his husband, identified as Hunter College Professor Matthew Lasner, were removed from the flight and offered a later flight. But Goldstein also reportedly wanted to know why...

Frustrated after seeing another candidate secure the presidency without winning the national popular vote, mostly Democratic lawmakers in several capitols want their states to join a 10-year-old movement to work around the Electoral College. In states including Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Mexico, legislators have said they plan to introduce legislation that would require their state's Electoral College voters cast ballots for the presidential candidate who earns the most votes nationwide, regardless of the statewide results. "Every vote in this country should have equal weight. The Electoral College is a relic of a bygone era, and we need to change...

Six weeks since Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss in the presidential election, FBI Director James Comey is under pressure to justify the bombshell announcement that rocked the final days of the campaign. Democrats, still smarting from the Nov. 8 loss, have lashed out at Comey as the architect of the Democratic nominee's defeat. “James Comey cost her the election," former president Bill Clinton has said. Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has accused the director of being a “Republican operative” who helped President-elect Donald Trump win the White House.

Two investigations involving minority women who accused Donald Trump supporters of attacking them last month — one in California and another in Oregon — have stalled because of lack of cooperation or lack of evidence, investigators tell The Daily Caller. The investigations stem from incidents that allegedly occurred at San Diego State University and in Hillsboro, Ore. in the days after Trump was elected president. At San Diego State, a Muslim student claimed that on the day after Trump’s victory, two men stole her purse and car keys while making pro-Trump statements. She later reported her vehicle stolen. Also on...

’Tis the season to spread joy and cheer — unless you’re a liberal still bitter about the election. Thursday, Ivanka Trump and her family were accosted by Dan Goldstein, a lawyer from Brooklyn, who yelled at her that her father, who has yet to take office, was “ruining the country.” It wasn’t a spontaneous outburst. Goldstein’s husband had tweeted from the JetBlue terminal at JFK Airport that Goldstein was “chasing” Ivanka and her family to “harass” them. “Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private,” Goldstein reportedly shouted when he saw them on the plane and allegedly...

Radio City Rockettes pushback against Inauguration performance gig.

Russia isn't done screwing with the United States in 2016. On Dec. 16, the Russian military reportedly tested what appears to be an anti-satellite weapon—a rocket that can boost into low orbit and smash into enemy spacecraft. The test could be the latest sign of Russia’s intention, and improving ability, to threaten America’s hundreds of government and private spacecraft—and chip away at the United States’ military and commercial advantage in space. It might also be the latest provocation from a Russian regime that increasingly denies any responsibility for its most destabilizing moves. That’s how Moscow can get away with hacking...

What a year it has been for James Comey! At the start of 2016, the FBI director enjoyed a reputation as a public servant of high integrity, earning bipartisan acclaim for his stewardship of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency.

President Elect Donald Trump on Thursday secured the Radio City Rockettes to perform at his Jan. 20 inauguration — but at least one dancer was not happy with the decision. Rockette Phoebe Pearl said in an Instagram post Thursday night that she was “embarrassed and disappointed” to appear at the event. [SNIP] “The women I work with are intelligent and are full of love and the decision of performing for a man that stands for everything we’re against is appalling,” she wrote. “I am speaking for just myself but please know that after we found out this news, we have...

  "The single most significant, inter-galactic, extra-celestial, interplanetary, and spiritual force behind the global stock market rally is the decline of inflation to rates not seen in over thirty years. While many industrial nations, including the U.S., have imposed anti-growth and anti-saving tax increases in recent years, fiscal drag has been offset by a steady decline of inflation. Inflation is a tax on money, wealth creation, income, and work effort. Inflation is a devastating tax on savings. But low inflation is a tax cut. By enhancing the value of financial assets, price stability rewards patient savers and investors. It...

Here is a final blog for 2016 from one of my students this semester. Ashley Pipari is a Senior double major in Communication and Political Science at the University of Delaware. She wrote this blog just days after the Election, thinking of her future children and how to explain this to them. Professor of Communication & Political Science, University of Delaware Dear Future Children, Please know that I believe in the United States democracy crafted by our founding fathers. I believe in the Constitution. I believe in the voice that each person has when casting his or her vote. I...

A Democratic concert promoter is putting together an inauguration day show in Miami to directly compete with President-elect Donald Trump's special day. Politico Playbook is reporting that Mark Ross, the son of the late Time Warner CEO Steve Ross, is putting together a 'We the People' concert, which will take place on January 20, 2017. 'The talent is banging on our doors to do this,' a source told Playbook. Much like Trump's inaugural, where only a handful of acts have been announced, there are few details about who might show up to this competing show. Currently, Ross is working on...

“If anyone does do it, I hope that the check that they get is in the nine figures. Because it’s probably the last check they’re ever going to get,” Simon Renshaw tells TheWrap The Dixie Chicks’ manager says the title of one of their songs sums up why Donald Trump’s inauguration team can’t book A-list talent: Hollywood isn’t ready to make nice with the president-elect. Trump’s inaugural committee is still struggling to lock in A-list talent for his big festivities, according to Hollywood insiders, and even offering ambassadorships to anyone who can wrangle top singers. “If anyone does do it,...

On a warm Friday morning in Lafayette, one of San Francisco’s wealthiest suburbs, a man named Olivier strolled down Mount Diablo Boulevard with his mother, nephew and 3-month-old daughter. A car approached the native New Yorker, the son of a Nigerian father and French Canadian mother. The sedan slowed. A window rolled down. “White power!” the driver yelled and then sped off.

In an extensive post-election interview with Eater, TV personality and renowned chef Anthony Bourdain vowed to boycott Donald Trump’s Washington D.C. hotel restaurant, and said he does not see evidence that America is a less racist country than it was in the 1960s. “I will never eat in his restaurant,” the Parts Unknown host said when asked about chef Alessandro Borgognone bringing a new sushi restaurant, Nakazama, to the new Trump International Hotel in the nation’s capital. “I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt.” Bourdain said the chef doing business with Trump is “not helpful.”

Ivanka Trump Accosted by Passenger on JetBlue Flight 12/22/2016 7:40 AM Ivanka Trump just had a bumpy start to her Xmas holiday ... an out-of-control passenger on her flight began verbally berating her and "jeering" at her 3 kids. Ivanka was on a JetBlue flight leaving JFK Thursday morning with her family when a passenger started screaming, "Your father is ruining the country." The guy went on, "Why is she on our flight. She should be flying private." The guy had his kid in his arms as he went on the tirade.